It's not the sound I want!

Sounds like you have a great system Blbloom. The jena cable although not greatly advertised are good cables. I own a digital cable from them. If I am not mistaken your Aeriels have a metal dome tweeter. If so you might want to try a different set of spkrs cables. Something on the forgiving side. Hope this helps.

I'm sorry to hear that you're not satisfied with your setup. I suggest you completely rethink your system. From what you described, it's unbalanced. Assuming that you don't want to change the entire system, then the weakest component is your CD player. You spent too much of your budget on the speakers/amplifier and not enough on the front end. The money you spent on the better cables, interconnects and particularly the power chords was not a wise choice. You should only spend money on these items after the system basics are right. Your core components can easily support a CD player 3 to 4 times the cost of the Adcom. I know my reply sound harsh and overly critical, but I mean it to help you. Getting good sound is hard work and I don't know anybody who gets it right the first time. The high end is a journey, not a destination. Keep listening to your ears.

It think that alot of variables are present and an often overlooked one would be the actual listening room itself. You have great components now you have to tune your room.

Source, source, source! I adamantly echo the above comments. The Adcom is the likely "weak link" in the system. Audition higher quality CD sources (Wadia, Linn, Naim) and evaluate the change for yourself. And of course the room should ALWAYS be considered a component.

I also agree that the Adcom has GOT to go! In addition, I would say GET SOME TUBES. Given the resolution oriented amplification and speakers that you have, and the fact that you like acoustic guitar and vocals, you could do very well with SOME tubes somewhere in the system. A good way to try both recommendations might be to pick up a tube dac like the Cal Labs Alpha. $3-400 used, plus $50 or so for a digital cable, and you can try an upgrade to your digital as well as some tubes, without too much pocket-ache. Lastly, don't despair - identifying a sound that you don't like is an important step towards finding that ultimately satisfying system. And for most of us audio nuts, that last step always appears within our graps but just out of reach .....